The present application finds particular application in vehicle troubleshooting systems, particularly involving diagnostic systems. However, it will be appreciated that the described techniques may also find application in other diagnostic systems, other vehicle monitoring systems, or other troubleshooting systems.
Research shows that antilock brake system (ABS) failure in commercial vehicles frequently goes undetected due to inspector inability and/or unwillingness to perform the often complicated and time-consuming system checks. For instance, ABS fault indicator lights that are burned out in vehicles being inspected can indicate that the ABS fault persisted for a lengthy time period before the bulb burned out, and/or that the bulb has been tampered with to hide a faulty ABS from an inspector. Roadside inspectors may verify that the ABS fault indicator is not lit and consider the vehicle safe, but if the ABS fault indicator bulb is burned out there is no way to verify that the ABS is functioning properly.
ABS function is difficult to verify via a roadside inspection in part because of the wide variety of vehicle models, model years, ABS types, etc. When the ABS fails, downstream systems such as electronic stability program (ESP) control, collision mitigation systems, adaptive cruise control systems, etc., can be detrimentally affected. However, to date, the roadside inspector merely checks the ABS light to make sure that it turns on and back off in order to verify that the ABS is functioning properly.
The present innovation provides new and improved systems and methods that facilitate automatically verifying that mandated systems (e.g., ABS and others) are not only present on a vehicle but functioning properly, which overcome the above-referenced problems and others.